SG launches million-dollar tech program for small and medium law firms

Singapore has launched a multimillion-dollar program aimed to make small- and medium-sized law more technology-savvy.

Funded by SPRING Singapore, an agency of the country’s Ministry of Trade that helps boost Singapore enterprises, the Tech Start for Law program will be administered by Law Society Singapore and is endorsed by Ministry of Law Singapore. Up to SG$2.8m has been earmarked to seed the initiative.

The program gives law firms with 30 or fewer lawyers access to five products identified as basic technologies that help law practices become more efficient. Under the program, qualified law firms can get up to 70% of the first-year cost of adopting technology products for practice management, online research, and online marketing.

The program has identified CoreMatter, Lexis Affinity, and Clio as qualifying practice management systems. It has also identified INTELLEX as a qualifying online research tool and Asia Law Network as an online marketing tool.

The Ministry of Law said that law practices can apply for funding support to use up to three of the identified solutions, one from each category. About 380 licenses are initially supported by the funding allotted for the project.

According to data from the Law Society, 97% of law practices in Singapore are small-to-medium-sized. However, only 9% of these firms use technology to enhance productivity and operations.